I just wish to thank Nick Booth for organising and promoting the evening again and for whoever put Nick onto using the Dragon Inn for its social space, cheap booze and wifi access but also to everyone who attended and made it what it was. Everyone was up for it, everyone had exciting stuff to say and we all had a good laugh mainly and it felt more like a party night rather than anything stuffy. If you live in the midlands (or can get to Birmingham for that matter) and you own a blog, or even thinking about creating a blog, come along to the next one as I am sure you will make a lot of new friends and have a great time. There was nothing geeky about this bunch of folks.

Tonight is the second Birmingham Bloggers Meet or we may call it the first Birmingham Social Media Cafe (yet to be decided). It is taking place at 7pm onwards at the Dragon Inn, Hurst Street, Birmingham with an open invitation for all that wish to attend. I will be giving a rundown of what is discussed tomorrow. Until then…

Welcome to digiJet ladies and gentleman, my name is DigiBot and I am the big chief cabin crew drone. My fellow cabin crew and I will now take you through the safety procedures should we happen to make an emergency stop. In the event of an emergency, off site hyperlinks will be illuminated at floor level and can be found at the front, rear and centre of the plane. Linking to other websites that relate to your blog post will improve search engine rankings and credibility with readers as it shows you have researched thoroughly and are happy to provide links to third party websites where further information can be found.

During takeoff and landing we must insist that you remember that writing a blog post should be above all else a pleasurable experience for both you and your readership. Make sure that you are providing a quality service with good content. Making money or gaining fame and popularity from your blog are second to the enjoyment of writing and providing quality material. Above all else blog writing is the act of engaging in social media and conversing; making a quick bob or two is secondary. If it is seen that you are more driven by the money than by the passion for writing and providing good content, the blog may be too heavy for the overhead lockers and come crashing down, injuring you or a fellow passenger.

Should the oxygen masks be deployed during the flight please pull towards you and place over your mouth and nose, placing the elastic band over your head. This will ensure that when you write, it is in a style that is open and warm. Writing in your natural voice will come across to those that read your articles as welcoming and conversational. This is unlike the robotic drone voice you are hearing from me at this moment. Take note. Ensure you go to length in providing a full in-depth analysis of whatever the subject is you are talking about; gather and provide fully researched information before helping others with there masks.

If we must land on water, lifejackets are provided under your seat allowing you to create a joint blog post. Do not inflate your jacket until you are outside of the aircraft as it may impede your exit. Joint blogging is a technique that I have only seen before by Lee and Rhett. By inflating your lifejacket with a fellow blogger you could take it in turn to write alternate paragraphs or sign off your part of the blog and handover the next section to your fellow blogger. This is provided to attract attention. Should you need to top up with air or the jacket fails to inflate, blow through the tube at the top.

Thank you all for your full attention, we would like to leave you now on a final note that you can further make your writing interesting by using a characterised style or theme such as used in this particular demo. You may even use a dialogue conversation or interview. This list is far from exhausted and adding a personal touch or spice will keep visitors to your blog entertained, informed and returning readers. The captain has now turned off the seatbelt light, you are free to release your buckle and leave your seats.

So what is the point of this article? Well mainly just to try out a touch of blogging outside of the comfort zone, try new techniques, inspire you, my readers to try different writing styles for your own musings and with any luck produce an interesting article in it’s own right. The idea that popped into my head when I began this was to try and produce a post which takes on the feel of being on an aeroplane, perhaps using the run-down of safety procedures that we receive on flights from the cabin crew/flight attendants. Alternatively maybe the captain’s tannoy announcement. So far you and I both know this hasn’t happened!

I felt it worthy to set the scene beforehand. This surprisingly now has developed into a two-part article. In the next there will be none of this faffing; straight into the style. And it will be written on my return journey so I can detail another snapshot of the cabin crew and captain doing what they do best. Until then, Ciao! In the meantime I am off to slide down some snow covered mountains with on a laminated board that my feet are strapped bound to.

DigiKev:
“This is not a very sound thing to do, in doing so and repeatedly being the ‘valued customer’ you will be rumbled. It hardly takes a lot to know that the so called valued customer is a representative of your company. The community you are trying to embrace will ignore you, or worse you will be flamed and spammed and bad-mouthed until you are so buried you won’t be able to see above ground. The press will likely catch on and your good name will be dragged through the dirt.”

Client:
“…Okay, granted but this is the only way that we are prepared to communicate with our public as we do not want to lose control of the company pr. Having an individual or individuals representing our company and taking our stand point on our behalf could go badly in our favour. What if they get it wrong? What if they get bombarded with off topic questions? What if? What if?”

DigiKev:
“There is a great opportunity here to get down to the grassroots. Yes you will have to let go of the control. Social media is all about human communication. You don’t need to get sucked into off topic questions; if they are irrelevant say so, if the information is contained in your site then direct them to that information. Don’t be worried about losing control and if someone makes a mistake they just tell the community, look sorry I am human, I made a mistake and this is what it should have been. Finding out where your company is lacking from those that you are selling to is golden information; giving that up is just business suicide and your competitors (who are or will be employing a public figure to the company) will succeed. If you can’t trust whoever you have employed to be the voice of your company to speak to your public then I am afraid you have employed the wrong people.”

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Plenty of businesses are yet to jump on what the web can offer at the detriment of sales and popularity. Hiding behind thickly built walls of pr and controlling every element of how the company is seen and portrayed isn’t going to cut the mustard. The trends section of Marketing Week 17.01.08 notes “two thirds of social networkers are likely to buy a product as a result of a referral by a friend or online acquaintance – equating to £750m in online sales”. I am not saying that the only method is to deploy public speaking figures of the company in forum websites. Embracing social networking and the new age of digital media by conversing, allowing comments and feedback on a blog or by whatever other means you feel fit is key to business survival online. Non-communicative businesses that turn there back on social media, or worse try to control and fake in the social playground as described in the opening dialogue, in my opinion will begin to lose out to competitors that fully embrace and get social media.

What experiences have you had with clients and there perception of social media? How have you dealt with and explained the subject to them? Do you agree that businesses embracing social media and engaging conversations with the public will prosper?

Stef got the ball rolling by asking the question to the group: “What does everyone reckon about the article that was published in the Guardian last week saying there are lots of cities in the UK that have fantastic blogging scenes, and Birmingham wasn’t even on the list?&rquo;

Stef has kindly posted the audio capture of this topic for download.

My personal additions to the discussion were:

• The Guardian article was focusing on cities that have already built up a blogging community where bloggers meet on a regular basis and had someone heading the movement for them. Due to this I think Birmingham wasn’t mentioned but now that there is a community being formed this will likely change in the future
• I feel we should interlink with each other more, referencing each other and also bolster this by using the XFN (XHTML Friends Network) system

One of the key points that came out in context to commercial blogging was that everyone wants to read an honestly written article from someone who cares about the subject they are discussing. The written word has to come from the heart, not off the back of pr guidelines or stringent rules on how the company wishes to be perceived. If the post comes across as less than honest it will be picked up on, sniffed out and discarded as a waste of time to read. I read in someone’s blog recently (apologies I can’t find the reference point, I will update when I do) that if you can’t trust the individuals you put in place to shed good light on your company through the posts they write then you’ve employed the wrong people. The best investment you can make is to find excellent writers who care about the company values and express this in their own creative way.

A common tagging theme was also agreed upon as a great way to increase awareness of blogging in Birmingham. A general tag of “BirminghamUK” to be added to all blog posts regardless of topic will improve visibility and will be added to Technorati. I also hear from Jon that Dave has built BrumSearch (based on Google) off of the back of this tagging consensus, thanks Dave.

Charlotte has also written a blog on the evening which picks up on some interesting questions on the direction and value of blogging. If you also wish to meet with us at the next gathering find out when and where as well as contributing to the Birmingham Bloggers UK facebook group.